Wicked: The life and times of Elphaba Thropp
by AngelaIsAwesome
Summary: If Elphaba had discovered her extraordinary powers sooner, what would have happened?
1. Prologue: Melena's secret

Melena loved dancing. As the youngest daughter of the Eminent Thropp, she danced and danced with the most eligible men in Oz under opalescent chandeliers in the most extravagant gowns. Her older sister Sophelia was saddled with all the responsibility of ruling Munchkinland whilst she was free to sing and laugh and run through the fields of corn which dominated their region.

The Great Drought of Year 345 swept through their land, bringing with it desperation, despair and most worryingly of all, disease. The Sickening took with it young and old, rich and poor, unrelenting in its ferocity. Her sister Sophelia succumbed to it at once, turning from a young smart woman into a blister covered corpse within a day. The Thropps quarantined themselves in their estate until the following Spring, when the pestilence disappeared as quickly as it came.

The illness, combined with the ongoing drought, crippled Munchkinland's economy and the people were demanding a solution.

'Please, Melena, think of the family name!' her mother had pleaded.

A wealthy merchant and preacher called Frexpar had visited the Thropps not long after the plague ended. He brought gifts of gold and jewels, gifts her now impoverished family could not refuse. The family would have married off Sophelia, the older, wiser and more mature one but given she was currently rotting in the ground, Melena was offered up for marriage.

It wasn't that Melena hated Frex- he was a rather plain, polite man- but marrying him meant she was trapped in her duties as a wife and later ruler to Munchkinland. Her dreams of dancing and laughing with handsome young fellows across Oz lay dashed at her feet.

But Melena looked at her parents, saw their tired faces and agreed.

_Sweet Oz, _she thought, _I am now stuck with the most boring man in all of Oz. _

Frex was as boring as she thought he'd be. His touches never elicited the same excitement in her as previous lovers had and most importantly of all, he never had any time for her, always hurrying off to some meeting or another.

Melena resigned herself to a life of perpetual dullness until _he_ came along. He called himself Oscar Diggs- a funny sounding name- and was a travelling salesman. He wore funny clothes and spoke with a thick, strange accent. He was as free as the wind and handsome to boot, everything Melena had ever dreamt of.

They first met when she caught him sneaking into the Thropp gardens. His exotic beauty stopped Melena from reporting him and she let him go.

However, he showed up at her doorstep the next day. He grinned roguishly at her, called her beautiful and offered him some of his 'Green Elixir'.

_It will make all the pain go away, baby._

Without a second thought, she let him in.


	2. Prologue: Consequences

'Push, push,' urged the midwife.

Melena grunted in pain as she felt another contraction. As expected, the mysterious stranger had disappeared as swiftly as he came, leaving her alone again.

Apparently, her husband was not very clever as he did not suspect that the child belonged to another. She briefly considered killing it but by the time she found out she was pregnant, the servants told Frexspar and he was delighted at the prospect of having his first child.

Accompanied by a long thin wail, the baby slid into the midwife's waiting hands. The midwife cut the cord and cleaned the baby.

Then she fell silent.

There was a long pause.

'It's as green as a ferny cabbage!' the midwife exclaimed and held the baby up in the light so that everyone could see.

Frex, who had been smiling serenely during the whole labour, stood up and recoiled as if hit.

Melena gasped. Was Oscar Diggs responsible for this … deformity?

'Take it away!' thundered Frexspar to the midwife before leaving the room himself. He didn't even spare a second glance at Melena, who had started to sob.

Did she love this… thing?

Melena looked at the tiny green baby sleeping in the nursery. She was forbidden by Frexspar from contacting the baby, who was currently being cared for by the servants. And yet, here she was in the dead of night, having snuck away from her sleeping husband to see the baby.

Her husband insisted on naming her after Saint Aelphaba, who in legends disappeared behind a waterfall and did not reappear until several centuries later. Melena found herself disliking it for the name clearly revealed Frexspar's hatred of the girl.

Perhaps on some primal level, he knew that the baby was not his.

Stirring, the baby's eyes fluttered open. They were a deep soulful brown, just like her late sister's eyes had been. Feeling an unexpected surge of emotion, Melena bent down to pick the baby up for the time.

Elphaba was surprisingly light and smiled contently at Melena.

Maybe she would grow to love the child one day, thought Melena as she hummed an old song from her childhood when she was still free and Sophelia alive.

The second time she fell pregnant, Frexspar watched her like a hawk. Every day, he would force her to chew those bland, bitter milkflowers to prevent the next child from coming out green.

But as she went into labour, Melena knew that something this time was wrong. She felt fainter than before and the labour lasted much shorter than it had been with Elphaba. She looked up from time to time to see copious amounts of blood, more blood than she had ever seen in her life.

By the name the baby's head crowned, Melena knew that her death was imminent. She looked up one last time to see Elphaba's green face peering at the scene from the window. Frexspar had banned the toddler from attending, confining her outside to stop her greenness from infecting the new baby.

Melena felt a stab of pity for her oldest child and silently mouthed 'Good luck' at Elphaba.

Then the world went dark and Melena was free again to dance, laugh and sing through the fields for corn from her youth.


	3. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

One day Mother was there, tired, pale and swollen and one day she was gone, replaced by a screaming baby. Elphaba knew something was amiss when the midwife started screaming and her father, who was usually as expressive as a stone, became bright red and cried. She quickly ran away when the strange men entered the room and carried away her still Mother on a stretcher and into the back of a black carriage.

She did not know what happened to her Mother until days later. She was playing outside in the garden amongst the roses, her Mother's favourite place. Suddenly, a stone hit her on the back and she whirled around.

She clenched her fists when she saw Cook's son, a boy around her own age, smiling smugly at her.

'Did you hear the news, Froggy? Your Mother is dead,' he laughed.

Elphaba felt the life drain out of her.

'You lie,' she replied, trying to look sure of herself.

' No- I heard Ma and her friends gossiping about it. Apparently, the baby is as much as a monster as you- the baby can't even move her legs-

He never got a chance to finish his sentence when an invisible force knocked him onto the ground and his head hit the grass with a dull thud.

Dazed, he glanced up in astonishment at Elphaba, who stared blankly back at him.

In a flash, he scrambled up.

'You're mad!' he cried as he ran away.

Elphaba was punished later, just as she expected. The slaps stung more than usual and her ears rang with the loud screams of her father- _you unnatural little devil, you disgrace of the family_. She cried for the first time in years, alone on her bed.

One of the servants put a cold plate of leftovers next to her bed when she missed dinner but she lost her appetite and fed it to the strays.

Her Mother- the one person in her life who showed her any kindness- was gone, replaced by a screaming parasite.

Now, if she did not look out for herself, nobody will.


	4. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

Elphaba looked on in envy as Frex fussed over her new sister. _Sister. _How funny was fate- her Mother had died and was replaced with a weak, squawking thing that Elphaba would no doubt be forced to serve. Despite her father's wealth and power, Elphaba was treated no better than a servant by the rest of Munchkinland.

Elphaba was ordered to dust her West Wing corridors, the least visited place in Colwen Grounds. The corridor was blanketed with dust and every corner was covered with spider webs. Faded white sheets were thrown over the ancient furniture and the portraits, formerly lacquered and framed with heavy gold, were eaten by mildew. The carpets had long since faded to black and the fine velvet curtains crumbled at the slightest touch.

As she gloomily dusted the skirting boards, she felt a twinge of something… like the scent of flowers on a summer's day or the gentle rays of a spring sun. She paused and pressed her hand against the wall, where she first felt it. Her mood lifted like rain clouds being blown away.

She lighly pushed against the wall and lept back in shock as the wall started to break open. Centuries of dust and dirt rained onto the ground as the wall split open to reveal… a library.

Secret passageways were common in houses like Colwen Grounds, which were built centuries ago to withstand attacks from enemies. However, hiding a library in your house was most peculiar.

Elphaba grabbed a broomstick to jam open the passageway in case it closed and entered into the library. Tentatively, she examined one of the books.

' _Magick Most Potente'_

It was written in Old Ozian, a language which has been extinct for centuries.

Curious, Elphaba opened the heavy tome. The ink was fresh and the pages clean as if it has been just written yesterday.

_Contents: Alchemy, Demonology, Familiars, Curses, Runes_

Magic had all but disappeared in Modern Oz. Where dragons used to roam, flocks of birds take their place. The Familiars stopped appearing whenever witches tried to summon them and the last Wizard had died five centuries ago, during the Great Ixian Wars.

Since the end of the Ozma's rule, Elphaba heard that most of the remaining witches had fled through the Impassable Deserts and settled elsewhere, where the Wizard's men couldn't find them. The current Wizard himself was shrouded in mystery and no citizen could get close to him because he was always surrounded by politicians and noblemen.

Unable to help herself, Elphaba thumbed through as many books as she could.

' _Potions for Common Ailments'_

'_The Book of Bannishments'_

' _Herbs and Cauldrons: My Hedge-Witch story'_

Why did this magical library appear to her of all people?

If she were the only one who could access it, then maybe she was magical?

Suddenly, all her magical outbursts made sense. She was not a freak or a devil as her Father was so fond of saying.

No- she was special and she finally found a way to control it.

Elphaba pocketed a slim volume- '_Basic Spells_'-and left the library, taking her broomstick with her as the walls closed behind her.

The bells rang for dinner but Elphaba ignored it. She was not hungry for food but for knowledge.


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Elphaba quickly vanished the candle illuminating her bedside as the footsteps of her father stopped at her door. She pushed 'Basic spells' below her pillow, tossed her reading glasses onto the bed time table and prayed to whatever deity that her father would leave her alone.

There was a pause and a shadow fell over her bedroom floor.

Elphaba let out a sigh of relief as his footsteps left.

She turned to summon the candle again but her door creaked open agian.

'Elphaba?' a small voice asked.

Nessarose rolled into her room, clutching her small teddy. Nessarose was five and saw Elphaba as a mother figure, something Frexspar encouraged. He still blamed Elphaba for Melena's death, something Elphaba thoroughly disagreed with but wisely kept it to herself.

After much sighing, Elphaba lifted the smaller girl onto her bed and they sat there for a long time, until Nessarose's head started drooping.

'Now now, Father will be angry!' exclaimed Elphaba. Nessarose began to protest but Elphaba carried the girl onto the wheelchair and rung for the servants.

Jessi, a Munchkin servant girl, came scuttling in and wheeled Nessarose back to her bedroom. Elphaba cursed Nessarose for taking her time from studying the spells as she sank into a deep dreamless sleep.

As time progressed, Elphaba's magic grew stronger and more controlled. Whilst her magic was linked to emotions before, Elphaba began to shape the world how after her own image.

Instead of wasting her time dusting the hundreds of bannisters in her old mansion, she enchanted the feather dusters to sweep each stretch of staircase instead. An old spell designed to clean clothes was modified into a charm which could clear miles of dirty carpet at a time.

The servants were to busy to notice anything amiss and her father was too preoccupied with Nessarose to notice such _abnormalities_. Elphaba was quite content to peruse the library with her time, especially after her father cancelled lessons with her private tutor, Turtle Heart.

The Quadling teacher was a shy, soft-spoken man who gave a glass bauble to her before he had left. He was one of the few people who did not treat her badly due to her skin. But the Wizard had started destroying the towns in Qualding Land to make way for ruby mines, the last natural resource left in the area and Turtle Heart had to rush home to take care of his poor parents. Frexspar, her bastard of a father, was delighted that such a 'low-class being' was leaving their home but in typical Frex fashion saw the Quadling off with a firm handshake and perfunctory 'good luck'.

Through Turtle Heart, Elphaba had learnt more about the world beyond Munchkinland, although she had never set foot outside Colwen grounds. Elphaba was desperate for adventure, a life outside her father and tending to his needs. She dreamed of visiting the leisure centres of Lake Chorge or the grand and historic Kvon Altar, the seat of the Vinkun ruling family. But most importantly, she fantasied about going to Shiz, Oz's finest ( and only) university, where other witches studied.

However, the fantasy of escaping her family was little more than a pleasant daydream. Elphaba was barely ten, had no friends or relations living elsewhere in Oz and no means of making a living for herself. She had to wait patiently to visit the expansive libraries in the Emerald City and access the reams of magical lore found at Shiz.

Elphaba sighed. Life was not fair, but one day she would be _free_.


End file.
